under $20

HOT: My Mexican Cousin, Corner Sturt St and Southbank Boulevard, Southbank

February 3, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Finally the Arts Precinct has a decent place to eat, in the form of My Mexican Cousin. The all-day restaurant is part of the Melbourne Recital Centre and is a joint project between Savatore Malatesta (St Ali, Plantation) and Jerome Borazio (The Resurrection, Ponyfish Island). It’s named after St Ali‘s most famous breakfast dish ‘My Mexican [...]

HOT: Carolina, 11 Nicholson St, East Brunswick

February 1, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Carolina is a new cafe in East Brunswick where pram-pushing mums, bike riders and hip young things collide (or sometimes, in my case, I like to think I’m all three). What was a former Italian shoe store called ‘Invicta’ has been transformed into a casual cafe with all the right elements to appeal to their [...]

HOT: Annoying Brother Espresso + Kitchen, 650 Nicholson St, North Fitzroy

January 31, 2012 ⋅ One comment

Do you have a brother? Does he make you coffee? Cook you eggs? Bake you muffins? If he’s an annoying brother, then he might just do so. Annoying Brother Espresso + Kitchen is a small new cafe that’s opened on the southern end of Nicholson St village on the corner of Bik Lane. I have [...]

HOT: Alimentari, 251 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

January 30, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

New cafes seem to spring up every week in Fitzroy so when a cafe manages to outlast the competition for over a decade you know it must be good. So it goes with Alimentari. I remember when it used to be just a crushed little front room but the back room now opens up for [...]

NOT: Kokoro Ramen, 157-159 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

January 25, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

In the documentary and cross-cultural love story ‘Banana in a Nutshell’ there’s a funny moment where the Chinese girl and her Anglo boyfriend argue whether cereal is a breakfast food or ‘anytime’ food. It mirrors the kind of conversations that I’ve had with RM before – to me cereal is only for breakfast, whereas he thinks [...]

HOT: St Katherine’s, 26 Cotham Rd, Kew

January 22, 2012 ⋅ One comment

So George Calombaris may not know about the calculation of penalty rates for his waitstaff, but he does know how to run a good quality restaurant. PM24, Hellenic Republic, The Press Club and now St Katherine’s all get my whole-hearted recommendation. St Katherine’s showcases mid-priced, relaxed, high quality region-influenced food and I think this Greek/Turkish/Middle Eastern hybrid [...]

HOT: Rooftop Cinema, 6/252 Swanston St, Melbourne

January 20, 2012 ⋅ One comment

Ah summer! There are certain events that happen every year which really mark the season in Melbourne. Cricket. Tennis. The Suzuki Night Market. Free music in the parks. And one of my favourites, outdoor cinema. Every year I try to get to at least one summer movie screening under the stars – it’s still a [...]

HOT: Shanghai Street Dumpling, 342 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

January 18, 2012 ⋅ One comment

A couple of years ago RM and I had a week’s holiday in Shanghai. We ate ourselves silly in all manner of restaurants, with a particularly memorable dumpling gorge at Crystal Jade which is still my gold standard for dumplings worldwide (well, limited to the dumpling places that I’ve tried around the world). Shanghai Street [...]

HOT: Backstreet Cafe, 152 Kerr St, Fitzroy

January 11, 2012 ⋅ 3 comments

In Fitzroy, it’s another day, another new cafe…. Backstreet Cafe is the new project from the people behind Birdman Eating and it takes some of what’s great about that Fitzroy stalwart and extends it beyond – or more precisely below. More on that later. The cafe is located in a corner spot in amongst residential [...]

HOT: Helados Jauja, 254 Lygon St, Carlton

January 9, 2012 ⋅ 5 comments

Happy New Year! Hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break. Apparently one of the best ways to stretch out that happy holiday mood is to continue one holiday habit in your everyday life. With Melbourne’s unpredictable heat waves, one holiday habit I’ll be continuing is daily ice-cream! Fortunately in Melbourne there’s lot of [...]